ESL WORKSHEET 3

WORD GAMES

LinguaHouse
Stephanie Hirschman
July 8, 2021

Level: Pre-Intermediate (A2-B1)

Type of English: General English

Tags: Entertainment; Giving Opinions; Modal Verbs; Vocabulary And Grammar

Publication date: 07/08/2021

Students recognize some useful expressions for playing games and then listen to someone teaching a friend how to play a word game. The language point is expressing obligation and free choice when we explain rules. Students activate the target language in a pair work speaking activity, teaching each other two more word games. There are also word games in the two practice exercises, so the optional extension task is to play one more of the games presented in the lesson.

by Stephanie Hirschman

• CLICK HERE to download the student worksheet (color).
• CLICK HERE to download the student worksheet (b/w).
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher's notes (color).
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher's notes (b/w).
• CLICK HERE to download the audio (American English).
• CLICK HERE to download the audio (British English).

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Alice: We’ve got ten minutes before the bus comes. How about playing a game?
Barney: OK. I know a good one. It’s called GHOST. Do you know how to play?
Alice: No, I don’t.
Barney: I can teach you. It’s very easy. It’s a spelling game. We have to take turns saying a letter to make a word. The aim is to make the other player finish the word. So, in your turn, you shouldn’t say any letter that can be the last letter of a word.
Alice: But how do I know what word we’re spelling?
Barney: You don’t! That’s the game. Let’s start, I’ll explain as we go along. The first letter is C.
Alice: OK. I’m going to say K for the second letter.
Barney: C-K? You can’t say that. There’s no word in English that starts with those two letters. It must be a real word that you’re thinking of. But you’re not supposed to tell me the word.
Alice: OK, OK. Let’s go for A. So, it’s C-A. Can I say that?
Barney: Yes, that’s fine. Lots of words in English start with those letters. C-A-...T.
Alice: That’s a word - cat! You lose!
Barney: Wait - there’s one more rule that I haven’t told you yet. Three-letter words don’t count. So, it’s your turn again.
Alice: Really? You should explain that rule at the beginning. All right. Hmmmm… C-A-T-C.
Barney: Ooh, that’s difficult. Are you sure that’s a real word? You can’t (mustn’t) say it if you don’t know the word.
Alice: Yes, I’m definitely thinking of a real word. Do you want me to give you a clue?
Barney: You’re not allowed to give me a clue. Let me think... Oh, I see what you’re doing. You want me to say H to make catch, C-A-T-C-H. I guess there’s no other way to finish the word. You beat me!
Alice: I can’t believe I won the game - I’ve never played before!
Barney: Wait - you haven’t won the game yet. You just won the first round. Because I lost, I get the letter G. If I lose again, I get H, then O, and then S, and T. So, the first player to lose five rounds and get G-H-O-S-T, ghost, loses the whole game.
Alice: I see. Well, I hope you’re not going to get angry when you lose the game.
Barney: You don’t have to be so annoying! Who says I’m going to lose?

Source: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/word-games. Accessed on July 13, 2021.